So I'm Too Sweet?

Now that I am beginning my fourth week of bed rest (two at home and one full week at the hospital) I have more time to write.  Two blog entries in one week! On Tuesday I had my one hour glucose resistance test.  They drew blood early in the morning, had me chug a clear sickly-sweet 10 ounces of liquid than contained a grand total of 50 grams of glucose, then an hour later drew blood again.  I wasn't really worried about this test.  So far I've tracked like my Mom's pregnancies (other than carrying four of course) with no stretch marks, moderate nausea in the first trimester.  Mom didn't have gestational diabetes with either Faith or me, so it came as a bit of a shock when I was informed that I failed the one hour test.

When you fail the one hour test, they then do a three hour glucose tolerance test.  This is a misnomer.  It's more like the "how much can you tolerate test".  You see, I inherited great things from my parents - my build, my stretch-mark-free skin, my creativity - but I also got high blood pressure and horrible acid reflux.  Those issues predate the quad pregnancy, but as you can imagine they have intensified through the past months.  Thankfully the BP issues aren't too bad, but the reflux...ooooh the reflux.  At home I was on prilosec and still woke up multiple times at night to pop tums once my babies began taking up belly space.  At the hospital they have me on protonics (they reduce acid like prilosec) morning and evening as well as pepcid with meals. I still wake up tasting bile and feeling like my esophagus is burning off of my stomach so I pop some more tums.  If it was a really bad night of reflux, during the day my esophagus will spasm making my chest ache all the way through to my back.  That's the background you need to understand why the three hour test became a all night and all morning ordeal.

To complete the three hour test, you are not allowed anything by mouth from midnight until 6:00. PROBLEM! No tums or water at night.  Meaning sleep deprivation and suffering the bonfire in my chest all night.
You take a fasting blood draw at 6:00, chug two of those nasty sugary drinks, and wait an hour. PROBLEM!!! I need to eat.
Draw blood again, wait another hour.
PROBLEM!!!!! now I'm starving and my esophagus will never be the same again.
Draw blood again, wait another hour.
HUGE PROBLEM!!!!! You realize I will have either starved by this point or spontaneously combusted from the raging inferno in my throat right?
Draw a last blood sample.

My survival strategy was to eat up until midnight and stay on tums up until midnight too.  Then I would keep my bed at a 45 degree angle all night to help keep the reflux from working it's way up to my throat.  Survive the blood draws and hunger, then eat like a wild animal afterward.  It should work.  Ha! First keep in mind that if I have a choice 9:00 pm is bed time. So once midnight hit I was exhausted.  I'm not supposed to sleep on my back because it can limit blood flow to the babies.  Have you tried to get your spine to adapt to a 45 degree angle sleeping position on your side?  It was miserable.  Add to that the reflux which kicked in around 1:00 and attempted to incinerate my insides.  So pretty much no sleep.  By morning I was just ready to get it finished.  I could barely think straight, Donny had to leave for work and Mom wouldn't be here until after the traffic dies down.  I turned on the TV and just survived by blankly staring at the screen for those wait times.  Dr. Straughn had pity on me and said that if I failed the first two after drinking the glucose drink, she wouldn't have them do the last blood draw.  If you fail two draws, you fail the test anyway.  I still didn't think I was going to fail though.

I was wrong.  When my nurse, Amanda arrived for what would have been the last draw she delivered the news... I FAILED! Gestational diabetes can now be added to the long list of things I never expected would happen once I was finally able to get pregnant.  I was really bummed.  Thankfully, even though I keep having issues, the babies once again received an A+ from their ultrasound.  They really are troopers.

So now I'm on a nutritionist controlled diabetic diet.  We are trying to see how just the meal changes effect my blood sugar readings first.  Then they may add insulin.  I have my blood sugar checked first thing in the morning and two hours after every meal.  This is the first day of the change in my diet, so we'll just see what happens! Please keep lifting up the babies, Donny, our families, and me.  I am thankful for each and every one of you.